250% Increase In Glacial Movement Rates After Larsen-B Collapse

[hatrack]

Scientists at NSIDC have found that glaciers around the area of the Larsen B Ice Shelf accelerated immediately after it collapsed early in 2002, and are still speeding up.
The findings, presented at the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco this week, support earlier hypotheses that the ice shelf acted as a barrier, slowing the glaciers as they pushed up against the ice shelf, and that removing the barrier would cause the glaciers to speed up. This finding is significant, because it provides a smaller scale preview of what could occur if larger ice shelves –such as the Ross Ice Shelf– were to collapse.

Satellite images spanning the period before, during and after the break-up of the Larsen B Ice Shelf in March 2002 show this acceleration in several glaciers feeding into the now-disintegrated area of the shelf. According to velocity data from Landsat images from January of 2000 through February of 2003, Crane Glacier and the Hektoria-Green-Evans glacier system have all sped up. The speeds on the Crane Glacier increased from 1.7 meters/day to 3.1 meters/day in April through December of 2002, and then to 4.1 meters/day between December 2002 and February of 2003. This represents nearly a 250% increase in speed.

The results imply that ice shelf removal has a significant, rapid effect on feeder glacier flow, that the removal of the ice shelf directly affects glacier force balance, and, most importantly, that climate-related shelf removal for other large shelves fed by major ice streams are likely to result in a rapid speed-up of those glaciers and a change in the mass balance of the adjacent ice sheet, with a consequent impact on global sea level."

EDIT

http://www.nsidc.org/news/press/20031219_speed_up.html

[Code_Name_D]

1. Hmmm, I wonder what kind of farm land antartic will provide.

:(

[mhr]

3. I Thought Everyone Knew That Antarctica Is Now For Sale

Under Executive Order 0092503, Bush has abrogated yet another international treaty. The inside word is that global warming has been planned for years to warm the waters around the frozen continent.

Apparently, the Navy demanded a warmer climate if it was to protect the new hotels being planned by the republican tourism industry.

Sarcasm Off

[Emperor_Norton_II]

4. That would actually be worth it

Just to see the looks on their faces once all the damn cold freshwater coming off the caps shuts down the Gulf Stream.

Hint: Invest in land below the 40th parallel. It's gonna get a mite chilly on the old homestead...

[La_Serpiente]

2. I can't read anymore environmental news

it is too scary to read.